This invention relates to an apparatus for inspecting glass bottles, and more particularly to an apparatus for inspecting glass bottles capable of automatically measuring various portions of a glass bottle, such as weight, inclination of a sealing surface of a top lip opening, outer diameter of a shell or barrel portion, the perpendicularity of the glass bottle, outer and inner diameters of the top lip opening and the like, in a sequential measuring process by means of a plurality of inspecting devices located circumferentially about an inspecting table.
In general, bottles made of glass, called glass bottles or merely bottles hereinafter, are periodically taken out as samples during a production process thereof for spot inspecting or measuring the respective portions thereof, for example, measuring the weight of the glass bottle, the inclination of the top surface of the lip opening, the diameter of the barrel or shell portion, the overall height, and the like of the glass bottle. A control chart is drawn on the basis of the thus measured results for quality control of the glass bottles being manufactured.
The inclination of the top surface of the lip opening of a glass bottle relative to the reference surface of the bottom of the glass bottle is generally called down sealing surface. The down sealing surface has been measured in a conventional technique by abutting the contact of a dial gauge against the top portion of the lip opening to measure distances from the reference surface to the top surface at a plurality of portions of the glass bottle while rotating the glass bottle on a rotary measuring table about the vertical axis of the bottle and by comparing the measured distances, whereby the down sealing surface is calculated.
However, the top surface of the lip opening portion of a glass bottle often has minutely waved portions formed during the manufacturing process. Accordingly the conventional measuring method using a dial gauge has not been expected to exactly measure the down sealing surface because of the existence of the waved portions formed on the top surface of the glass bottle.
Moreover, in the conventional measuring method, since the glass bottles are periodically sampled during the manufacturing process for randomly measuring the dimensions of the glass bottle, such as the lip portion, the neck portion, the barrel portion and the bottom portion, and measured or inspected by means of a vernier caliper or other measuring gauges, this conventional measuring technique also gives rise to problems of the measuring accuracy, the measuring efficiency, and the like which result in deficient quality control.